The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator says there are still "huge and serious divergences" between Britain and the EU on Brexit.
Leaders of the 27 EU nations other than Britain were assessing the state of the faltering negotiations at a summit in Brussels on Friday. What was initially billed as a "Brexit breakfast" was delayed to a Brexit brunch, after all-night talks to ease a political crisis over migration.
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said "we have made progress" in divorce talks with Britain, "but huge and serious divergences remain, in particular on Ireland and Northern Ireland."
Britain has promised to maintain an invisible border, free of customs posts and other infrastructure, between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland - the UK's only land frontier with an EU member.
EU officials are impatient to hear detailed proposals from Britain for how that can be achieved, given May's insistence that Britain will leave the EU's customs union.
Barnier said he wanted British negotiators to return to Brussels on Monday for renewed talks. May said Britain was ready to "intensify and accelerate the pace of negotiations" after complaints from the bloc that divisions in her government are blocking progress.
May's Conservative administration is divided about how close a relationship to seek with the EU after Brexit. The British leader is caught between pro-EU parliamentarians who want to retain close economic ties with Britain's biggest trading partner, and pro-Brexit mps who want a clean break so Britain can strike new trade deals around the world.
British divisions look set to come to a head July 6, when May gathers her fractious Cabinet at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat, to try to draw up a united plan for future trade and security ties with the EU.
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